Bracelets are popular items to wear, but are troublesome for active individuals or people engaging in exercise because they tend to slip, rub, or otherwise irritate the wrist.
Conventional bracelet designs have several deficiencies including clasp, sizing, safety, durability, appearance, and comfort issues. For example:
Clasp issues: Clasps are notoriously difficult to operate by oneself and are by nature typically the weak point of any bracelet design. Such difficulties in operation are particularly true for children and for the elderly. Additionally, clasps can open, allowing the bracelet to become lost. Clasps can also break over time from repeated opening and closing, thereby rendering the bracelet useless.Sizing issues: Bracelets are typically made with an average 7.25″ wrist in mind. However, many individuals with larger or smaller wrists have difficulty finding bracelets that fit them.Safety issues: Bracelets that are rigid or hang loosely off the wrist can more easily catch or snag on clothing or other objects. This is a potential safety hazard, especially when the wearer is engaging in more vigorous activities.Durability: Bracelets often employ the use of jumprings in their design. A jumpring is often used to attach the clasp to the actual bracelet. This creates a weak point in the bracelet design, and in many instances, any tugging on the bracelet can cause the jumpring to open.Appearance: Bracelets often have a focal bead or main pendant in their design. The weight of the focal bead or main pendant causes it to slip around to the underside of the wrist so that it becomes hidden or the bracelet appears to be the wrong side up.Comfort: Bracelets can be bothersome to wear because they are heavy, bulky, scratchy, or fit loosely around the wrist. Movement through exercise or increased activity exacerbates all of these comfort issues. Comfort issues are even more important for wearers who, often for medical reasons, need to wear a bracelet throughout the entire day (such as a medical alert bracelet).
Some of the issues listed above are more tolerable for “everyday” jewelry wearers, but make the wearing of such jewelry difficult for active and exercise-minded individuals. Rubber band-type bracelets have been designed to overcome some of these issues. However, they still fit loosely on the wrist, causing rubbing to occur. They also are not made of a breathable, washable material and thus are more irritating to the skin during perspiration. The issues noted above are even more problematic for people with certain serious medical conditions, such as Diabetes, Epilepsy, and severe allergies. These individuals are advised to continuously wear a medical alert bracelet, which are most often a metal chain design, which can have many of the issues discussed above.
Additionally, tags for placement on shoes have be utilized, however these tags utilize tags that have charms affixed to their surface or are created from plastic materials which involve the use of molds to form the design. Although nice looking, changing the design of these tags is expensive due to the creation of new charms or new molds.